5 posts from March 2016

Mar 29, 2016

The loud discourse on Islam in the United States today marks Muslims as a threat, embroiled in pre-modern sensibilities, and unable to participate in democratic societies. These articulations are often made by recycling colonial and oriental images of Muslim women as oppressed and Muslim men as violent, with objects such as the hijab and the figure of the terrorist at the center. This rise of Islamophobic commentary has resulted in myriad incidences of bullying, teasing, and direct violence against teachers and students who identify, or are read by others, as Muslims. All this points to the lack of understanding about Islam and Muslims in the United States. This panel will argue for the urgent need for religious literacy and introduce the Cultural Studies method to understand Islam and Muslims.

Mar 26, 2016

Meanwhile, Hussein Rashid, a research fellow from the Truman National Security Project, a non-profit that works towards principled solutions for global challenges like terrorism, applauded the commissioner’s statement that underlines that Muslims are a part of New York’s diverse community. “The New York Police Department has really publically understood where they went wrong in a lot of their surveillances, [and] really spoken out against people who want to replicate this at a national level,” said Rashid.

“Our goal is to have children deal with differences in a healthy, positive way and encourage them to be inquisitive while exploring the world instead of running away from its differences,” Rashid said, an experience not so different from his years growing up in Elmont.